When it comes to reporting a scam, it can be confusing to know who to report to. Law enforcement agencies always want you to report criminal activity or suspicious activity. They use the information that you provide to help them to investigate and apprehend criminals. You may not always see a result, but they say that your information can be important and helpful to them.
The problem is though, when it comes to scams it can be confusing
on who to report the crime to. With most local crimes like a burglary, car
theft, or assault, we have been trained to call 911, and a deputy or officer
will follow up to investigate. Not with scams. There are many agencies that will
take reports of scams. But there is no one agency responsible for investigating
or charging scammers.
And who you report to can depend on the nature of the scam. Were
the scammers pretending to be from the IRS? Tell the IRS. Did the scammers use the
U.S. mail system? Tell the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Were the scammers impersonating
a local utility or a local law enforcement agency? Tell that utility or law
enforcement.
But if you have lost money or someone has stolen your personal
information, Social Security number, bank account or credit card numbers, etc.,
a crime has been committed. So, who should you report the crime to?
The first place is your local police agency. Calling 911 to report
the scam is a basic step. Having a police report can help with claims to your
bank, credit card company, or other agency that you may need to contact. And as
with other crimes, reporting in a timely manner is important to having a chance
of justice. Most victims do not recover any money that they have lost. However,
there have been instances of victims recovering funds when they have reported
the crime immediately after the crime occurred. The report will be reviewed and
evaluated for investigation. A limitation local law enforcement has is that it investigates
and receives many reports of local crimes, and local police receive many scam
reports daily. Also, crimes of violence, like assaults and homicides, take
precedence over property crimes and fraud.
Another key agency to make your report to is the FBI through its Internet
Crime Complaint Center (https://www.ic3.gov/). The FBI conducts criminal
investigations for many crimes including fraud and scams. It takes reports
about scams through the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Through the reports
the FBI builds cases to charge suspects. The IC3 is overloaded with reports so
the FBI usually does not respond to individual reports. The information in the
reports is valuable to help with fraud investigations.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also receives complaints about
scams at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ and for identity theft at https://www.identitytheft.gov/. The FTC charges scammers civilly and it
educates citizens about scams and how to prevent becoming victimized by scams. It
uses the information in its own scam investigations and education efforts. It
also shares the information with other government law enforcement agencies at
the federal, state, and local levels as well as internationally. As part of the
reporting process the FTC website will provide you with a checklist of things
to do to protect your accounts and identity in the wake of financial theft or
identity theft. Like the FBI the FTC will most likely not contact you regarding
your specific case but use the information that you provide along with the
information that others provide to determine scam trends for its investigations
and educational efforts. Sharing this information with law enforcement agencies
is important. The FTC claims that it shares its data with 2,800 law enforcement
agencies, allowing them to look for trends and clues that they can use in their
own fraud investigations.
As noted earlier, sometimes the character of the scam may be of
interest to certain law enforcement agencies. For example, if you are approached
by someone claiming to be an IRS agent demanding payment of back taxes the IRS
will want to know. For information about IRS scams and how to report to the IRS
go to https://www.irs.gov/help/tax-scams.
Scams can come through the mail. While this means of communication
has not received much publicity in the last few years, scams can come to you
through the mail. If you are approached by a scammer through the mail the
United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) will want to know. For
information about scams and how to report to USPIS go to https://www.uspis.gov/tips-prevention.
While there is no one phone number or agency to report scams, it
is important to report scams. At least report it to your local sheriff/police
and the FBI.
The following links have suggestions on what to do if you are
victimized by a scam:
Consumer Reports:
Federal Trade Commission:
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-do-if-you-were-scammed
AARP:
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/what-to-do-after-scam/?intcmp=AE-FRDSC-MOR-R2-POS3
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/how-to-report-fraud-file-complaints/
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